THE PHILIPPINES | Last Days in Malaybalay :: part one
After a wonderful month in the city of Malaybalay, I am now safely back in Manila to fly out to Cambodia. The last week in Malaybalay was amazing and made it even harder to leave on Wednesday Morning. The next few blogs will tell of some of the highlights from the last days of my first month on the race!
POOL TIME
On our last Friday, Belin (the women in charge of the children’s home) planned a surprise outing for us and the kids for the morning to afternoon. After much poking and prodding we got one of the team leaders (sweet Joni) to cave and tell us where we are going. We were so excited to here that we would be going to a resort’s pool area complete with kiddy pools and a big slide! She also informed us that each of us would be in charge of one child! So that morning I picked up my sweet little adopted child for the day, Eric John, who honestly could not be any cuter or sweeter. All 24 world racers, 23 kids, and 4 KIM workers piled into two passenger vans and the L300 kids bus. We were quite a sight with children on laps and on either side of us all. When we got to the pool we were excited to find that we basically were the only ones there and all the kids quickly plunged into the water.
The first half of the day I spent with sweet Eric John as he endlessly asked to be held while he jumped into the pool. His smile and laughter were enough to ward off the pain in my arms haha. After lunch, half of the world racers went back to prepare for a concert last night, which I will tell you more about later. That meant that I was relieved of kid and tot duty and was able to hang out with the older kids – Ariel, Cedreck, Jordan, Mart, and others. They began a game of who can push who in, which I was eager to play, competively thinking that they were just kids and I could easily win. I quickly took those thoughts back after the first time I was pushed in and it was then confirmed that I was not as strong as I thought I was the fifth and sixth times I was pushed in. But in my defense the boys were the same height if not taller than I was! Nonetheless, I had a blast. It was great to see the personalities of the kids and see them all laughing and smiling.
